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SPRINGFIELD — Brook Cupps watched nearly 60 basketball games last season.

Through scouting, game films and the 26 games he coached the Graham High School boys basketball team, Cupps didn't see one ejection.

"We're luckier than we realize," said Cupps about the level of sportsmanship around the area.

With the implement of a $100 fine and an online sportsmanship course added to a two-game suspension, however, Cupps and other coaches throughout the area will face even tougher penalties for an ejection — and they've got mixed emotions about the new policy.

"It's interesting," said South High School softball and volleyball coach Pete Cook, who will coach Springfield High School's volleyball team next fall. "I thought the two-game suspension was a good idea. It got everybody's attention. It sounds like some coaches didn't get the message.

"That's really steep (penalties) and if that's what it takes to clean up the sportsmanship on some coaches' part, I'm all for it."

Ejections rising

Ohio High School Athletic Association Assistant Commissioner Deborah Moore said the state is trying to cut the number of ejections.

"We're not seeing the decline we'd like, specifically the lower levels of seventh and eighth grade," Moore said.

The OHSAA has been tracking the number of ejections since 1994, when the two-game suspension rule was put in place.

Last year, there were approximately 200 coaching ejections around the state.

Sixty-one coaches were ejected in boys basketball last winter, up from 50 during the 2006-2007 season.

There were 18 ejections in football last fall, down three from the 2006. In baseball, there were 47 ejections in 2007, down one from 48 in 2006.

"It's either flat or we're seeing a little bit of an increase," Moore said.

Ejections are more prominent in boys athletics. There were just 16 ejections throughout the state in girls basketball last season — but for Moore, that's still too many.

"We believe coaches are role models," Moore said. "As a role model, you have to believe that your behavior will have an effect on young people."

Coaching views

Catholic Central High School football coach Steve DeWitt hasn't seen a coach ejected from a football game in his 32-year coaching career.

However, he still called the new policy "an interesting dilemma."

"We have a responsibility to the kids to demonstrate appropriate behavior and that's paramount," DeWitt said. "Often times, (a complaint to an official) is in defense of our kids and those we work with."

He said one football game is very expensive to lose as a football coach.

"The tournament starts the very first week of football season," DeWitt said.

Cupps said he is fine with the monetary fine, but the two-game suspension "hurts worse than the $100."

"If they get you once, you'll keep your mouth shut and stay on the sideline," Cupps said.

Cupps said he hasn't seen too many out-of-control coaches, but feels there should be an appeals process for a coach being ejected from a game.

"There are times when coaches get thrown out for obscure reasons on different levels," Cupps said. "(Officials) have the final say and they're the ones in charge when the whistle blows."

Catholic Central boys basketball coach and athletic director Dan Shay agrees with the new rule.

"We're professionals and we need to act like it," Shay said.

Shay feels if he gets a technical foul, he's "made my point and it's time to move on."

"You just can't go too far," Shay said.

He doesn't feel the policy will make it more easy or more difficult on officials to toss coaches out of games.

"They'll do what's right no matter what," Shay said. "It won't stop them.

"I don't think they'll be singling us out," Shay said. "If they do that, they have to look at themselves, too."

No changes

Longtime basketball official Frank Vitt, a West Liberty native, said he had mixed feelings about the fines and ejections.

"I don't know if I like the fact that they'll get fined," Vitt said. "But, on the other hand, (OHSAA) made the decision and they must have thought through that."

Vitt, who's officiated for 20 years and has never ejected a coach from a game, said his philosophy for ejecting a coach won't change.

Vitt said his policy after giving a technical foul is to remove himself from the coach. If the coach is still upset, he allows the coach to come to him. He said he teaches this to young officials and encourages them not to bait a coach into a second technical and an ejection.

"If a coach is going to get ejected, make it obvious that he's at fault and not something (the official) did on impulse," Vitt said. "You have to make sure it was a no-brainer.

"You want to be as preventative as possible."

Urbana resident Dave Nash, who's officiated football games for 38 years, feels the new rule will make his job easier.

"It will allow (coaches) to do more coaching and less officiating," Nash said. "They won't be as critical of our calls or our lack of calls.

"It should change the way the coach coaches," Nash said. "A coach won't be as verbal as he once was."

Nash sensed the new rule had been coming for some time.

"It's getting to the point where a lot of officials don't want to officiate for what they have to put up with," Nash said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0365 or mcooper@coxohio.com.

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